Farmers call for study of crop damage by wildlife

Young deer graze at last light on a hill on Baffin Boulevard in Dartmouth on May 13. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

SHEFFIELD MILLS — Nova Scotia farmers want a better understanding of the damage nuisance wildlife are inflicting on their crops.

The Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture has asked the province for research to examine the extent of the damage and the financial implications caused by deer, bears, birds and other animals.

“We want a wildlife research chair to study some of the methods for damage reduction and to get a really good handle on what the losses are,” federation president Henry Vissers said in a recent interview.

Most of the current evidence on wildlife damage is anecdotal, which is why more research is needed, Vissers said. “We’d like to get a better handle on all human-wildlife conflict.”

Farmers say white-tailed deer are eating too many of their crops. The problem seems worse this year than in the past because of more intensive cropping and the types of crops.

Soybeans are a favourite of white-tailed deer. But there are also concerns over other forage crops. Blueberries and young fruit trees are also a favourite snack food.

Jim Burrows, a dairy farmer near Truro, said the deer population seems to have “exploded” in his area. They’ve eaten as much as 20 to 40 per cent of his soybean crop this year.

Hants County fruit farmer Phil Daniels, who operates Daniels U-Pick in Windsor Forks, said he had to install electric fences around some of his young apple, pear and plum orchards, where deer had been eating the tender spring shoots off the trees.

That can be expensive, depending on the acreage. So he has also resorted to the old-fashioned technique of placing scarecrows in orchards. “That’s worked for thousands of years, why wouldn’t it work now?” he said in an interview. “It not only keeps crows out, it keeps the deer out.”

The federation met recently with officials from the provincial Agriculture and Natural Resources departments. It asked the province to improve the nuisance permit system to allow farmers to conduct a deer cull on their farms if needed.

It also asked for improvements to a provincial wildlife compensation program. Farmers have complained about the program for years, especially around how they quantify wildlife damage in a field or crop.

And the federation has asked for an increase in bag limits in some of the areas where there are high deer populations.

“The department is aware that some farmers are experiencing issues with nuisance deer and has met with the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture and Department of Natural Resources to review the situation,” Agriculture Department spokeswoman Krista Higdon said in an email message.

“Agriculture is also working with DNR and farmers to evaluate wildlife control options to keep deer out of crops.”

Vissers said he would like the research to include bear damage on farms. Bears can inflict much damage to the wild blueberry crop, a huge industry in Nova Scotia. And they damage beehives used for pollinating crops.

Studies should also examine the issue of bird damage in the blueberry and grape growing industries, Vissers said. “There’s a lot of bird damage … that we really haven’t even talked about.”

Some berry farmers are using netting and wailers, a device that emits loud sounds to scare off birds.

“But we need to be on top of that issue too,” Vissers said. “If the province would establish a wildlife chair, we would expect a little broader look at things, rather than just deer.”

Tony Rodgers, executive director of the Nova Scotia Federation of Anglers and Hunters, said his organization has offered to help farmers in the past, and would do so again.

“This has been an ongoing problem, and it’s a great concern to farmers, as it should be, because it’s their livelihood. Our federation has offered hunters to the farming community on a number of occasions.”

He said he has a list of members willing to go to farms, but several things have to be in place for that to happen. For instance, a nuisance permit would have to be issued and the hunter would have to claim the animal as his deer kill for the year.

“I’m sure there are people who would like to fill their tags early,” Rodgers said.

The federation’s highly touted Hunters Helping the Hungry program could harvest some animals for the food bank.

“We recently had some nuisance animals that were harvested … and put into the program, not on farms though,” Rodgers said. He added that nuisance permits should not be given out willy-nilly.

“We are against the frivolous killing of wildlife.”

Rodgers said it’s hard to say if the deer population is up or down, or if they’re just more attracted to the crops farmers are growing in some pockets of the province.